Shawn Patrick Sweet

By age 28, Shawn Patrick Sweet had worked at Stop & Shop nearly half his life. He wore an easygoing smile as he stocked the frozen dairy shelves at the Quincy store and always took part-timers under his wing. When he was 15, he started off as a part-timer.

"Whatever the task was, he was willing to work with newcomers until they were comfortable with it and they could get it right," said Faith Weiner, spokeswoman for Stop & Shop. "He was an easygoing, great guy with lots of friends in the store."

Sweet, who attended Massasoit Community College and Silver Lake High School, lived in Pembroke with his parents, Charles and Carol, and his 24-year-old brother, Daniel.

He used to bring home logs for the family's wood-burning stove, and flowers for his mother "just because," and a snowblower for his father, for those days when he wouldn't be around to shovel, his father said.

"Shawn's one of the nicest kids you could ever want in every way," said Charles Sweet, as he began to plan his son's funeral. "He's a gentleman."

A skier who once ran the Boston Marathon, Sweet "lived life to the fullest," according to a statement released by his family. He had gone to The Station with a group of friends, including a girlfriend, his father said. One friend, Jamie Conway, survived the fire, according to the Sweet family's statement. Three Stop & Shop employees are still missing.